RIP L train: 10 proposals to replace the train once it shuts down for years

The next Manhattan-bound L train will arrive in 1,576,800 minutes. Via.

RIP L train, we’d say you had a good run but that was only on the times you weren’t overcrowded or not even running on the weekends. Gothamist broke the news yesterday (later confirmed by the Times) that the L train between Brooklyn and Manhattan could be shut down for three whole years (!) to repair tunnel damage work from Hurricane Sandy [UPDATE: 7/25: We now know the train will officially shut down for 18 month starting in January 2019]. As preposterous as it seems to shut down an entire subway line that moves 300,000 riders a day from Williamsburg, Bushwick, Ridgewood, Brownsville, East New York and Canarsie, preposterous is just another dare for the MTA. But before you get too worked up about being stuck at the Bedford Stop until 2020, don’t fret: people are already proposing totally rational alternatives to #LNiño.

They don’t want you to get to work

https://twitter.com/erikhinton/status/687379932054421504

The Pat Kiernan “tandem plan”

Total shutdown!!?? Insane that MTA is thinking of anything but option that keeps 1-tube service for L train. https://t.co/ilkC0Anhsi